The Son: Why UKIP's Roger Helmer Came Under Fire In The Murdoch Press Yesterday

30 Apr 2014

Remember the Times journalist whose children are godfathered by Labour leader Ed Miliband? The story served to underscore a point that some folks were making about the cronyist nature of Britain’s modern press.

And yesterday another of Murdoch’s papers seems to have crossed into nepotistic territory with the Sunattacking UKIP European election candidate Roger Helmer MEP over words that he didn’t actually say.

But why? Well we can’t claim credit for noticing this myself. That gold star goes to ‘Sam Knowles’ from our comments section, who left a note under our story earlier saying: “Bill Newton Dunn, father of The Sun’s political editor Tom Newton Dunn, is a Lib Dem running against Roger Helmer in the East Midlands EU Elections. Nuff said.”

That IS actually “nuff said”.

Under ordinary circumstances you might deem it a coincidence. The circumstances would have to be such that Helmer actually said ANYTHING remotely offensive or nasty. But he didn’t. It was all cooked up. Helmer himself said that he received a phone call from Newton Dunn’s staff asking a bunch of random questions about gays. And now we know why.

Bill Newton Dunn, the Sun’s political editor’s father, is running for election against Roger Helmer as a candidate in the East Midlands.

By the way, Newton Dunn was the only British MEP to vote in favour of curbing online freedoms, as party of the ‘Dirty 39’ who endorsed the controversial ACTA bill that failed so magnificently in the European Parliament.

And speaking of failing magnificently… it looks like Newton Dunn’s going to lose his seat next month. What a shame. Maybe his son will hire him as Deputy Political Editor?